Downtown girds for workers’ return, but will they come?
Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 20, 2023 • 7 minute read
Federal government workers, many who may not have seen the inside of their office buildings in nearly three years, began returning to those offices this week, following a Treasury Board ruling last month that public servants adopt a hybrid work model that would see them back in their offices two to three days a week.
It was a decision that likely provoked as many different responses as there are employees, with some welcoming a return to pre-pandemic habits, while others had become quite comfortable with their new reality, working from dining room tables, sun rooms and home offices, not missing the commute one bit. The Public Service Alliance of Canada, meanwhile, the largest union representing federal government workers and currently negotiating a new contract with Treasury Board, vehemently opposes the new mandate, calling it “an egregious violation of workers’ collective bargaining rights.”
In an attempt to at least anecdotally gauge the return and its effects, particularly in Ottawa’s central core, I spent parts of four days this week approaching and speaking with government workers and downtown business owners and employees, to get their thoughts. Numerous public servants, perhaps out of fear of reprisal, declined to be interviewed. Most others who agreed did so on the condition of anonymity. One takeout deli owner agreed to speak, but also anonymously, out of fear of reprisal from returning government workers.
It was evident, though, that workers are returning, although in what numbers is unclear. According to Treasury Board, several departments, including itself, Privy Council Office and Statistics Canada, were already using a hybrid model that aligned with the common hybrid model of two to three days a week in the workplace, and so did not require many or significant changes. The department also noted that it doesn’t collect government-wide data on which employees are working on or off site.
Similarly, OC Transpo had no hard data on commute ridership last week. “Staff are collecting data and monitoring ridership demand across the system,” said Pat Scrimgeour, director of transit customer systems and planning on Thursday. “Initial indications are that ridership may be starting to increase with the return to on-site work by more people. We do not yet have enough data to reach any conclusions about customers’ preferred times of travel.”
One government worker who works on Sparks Street and has been going to the office two to three days a week throughout the pandemic, said on Tuesday that his public transit commute that day took 90 minutes from his home in Kanata, about three times as long as usual. He said, too, that about 60 per cent of his co-workers were at the office that day, the most since the start of the pandemic.
“There are positive reasons to coming back,” he added. “From a mental health standpoint, I think it’s good that people actually get out of their house a day or two a week, for the social aspect.”
That said, he doesn’t believe Treasury Board provided enough lead time for workers, especially those with families, to adjust. “It was inevitable that we had to come back to work, but how they’re implementing it is a little bit quick. A better idea would have been to do it this summer.”
Another public servant, who only identified herself by her surname, Paloma, and who also has been working out of her downtown office throughout the pandemic — in her case owing to the absence, until last month, of available internet at her remote West Quebec home — noted a little more traffic on her way into work, and that she had to park further away than usual this week, as other workers returned and filled parking garages and surface lots.
Without children of her own and not having worked from home other than one day a week since getting her home wired last month, she admits difficulty relating to what others have experienced since 2020. But she thinks the back-to-office mandate could better accommodate individuals’ needs. “Like if you’re working in the IT department, doing technical support, then it’s mostly all telephone calls, so I can see where people who want to continue working from home are coming from. But for a lot of positions, you do need to be in an office or a work environment.
“It would be nice to work from home,” she added. “It’s quite the luxury and I can see why people wouldn’t want to come back. I understand work-life balance, but people have made it a little out of proportion, and I think it’s time to settle in to a new reality. If two or three days a week in the office is the new reality, realistically, most people can do this.”
Many people I spoke with have, in fact, been doing this, at least since last summer or fall, or, as more than one person put it, “since COVID ended.”
“I’ve been back at the office three days a week since September,” said one woman, barely slowing her pace as she walked south on O’Connor Street at Laurier.
“So are you OK with it?” I asked.
“No, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
If there has been a bump in office attendance this week, most merchants in the area haven’t reported an accompanying boost in sales.
At Little Victories coffeeshop on Elgin Street, owner Andrew Bassett said that sales were up two per cent this week over the last, an increase that could easily be attributed simply to milder weather.
He’s spoken to government department managers in recent weeks about the return to the office, he said, where the “full-steam-ahead” sentiment is tempered with a “we’ll see” attitude. He wouldn’t be surprised, he added, if the current contract negotiations between the government and workers slows the return.
But Little Victories opened its Elgin Street location during the pandemic, so any added business resulting from office workers return is a bonus, he said.
“I’m not worried about government workers coming back for our survival. Our business is going to survive on our product and our quality of service and quality of space.”
A couple blocks away, at a takeout sandwich shop, one worker noted that sales haven’t improved. “There may be more traffic out on the streets,” he said, “but there hasn’t been more traffic in here.
“Maybe they’re bringing their lunches.”
Mary Ziade works at Vie Bella Market & Deli on Sparks Street, where they now often close a couple of hours early due to poor sales. “Here, take a muffin,” she said on Monday. “It’s even quieter today than usual.”
Her shop is just one of the many suffering from the homeward migration of office workers in 2020, and she worries whether even a 40 per cent occupancy will be enough to rescue the business.
“We need more people back.”
That’s a refrain heard so often since 2020 that it’s created a backlash among government workers who feel the weakened local economy is partly to blame for their forced march to the office. Some have indicated online that they won’t patronize area businesses because of it.
“Workers are blaming us,” said one lunch-counter owner who also asked that his and his business’s name not be published.
Business owners I spoke with largely agreed that it’s not up to the public service to rescue them. The pandemic, however, has underscored the heavy reliance that downtown Ottawa puts on the government, and points to a need to create vibrancy downtown with or without offices. During the recent municipal election, for example, mayoral candidates Mark Sutcliffe and Catherine McKenney both discussed repurposing office space and revitalizing the downtown core with housing and attractions.
“That’s absolutely a part of it,” said Karina Hayston, owner of Le Moulin de Provence on Metcalfe Street. “More people need to be in downtown Ottawa, and not just the suburbs. “It’s been difficult,” she added, “because we’re going on three years and all my clientele are working from home.”
She well understands workers who want to continue to work from home. At the same time, she’s cut production and let staff go — three people worked the counter at lunchtime on Monday, where there used to be between eight and 11. She’s adapted, she said, but doesn’t know how much longer the business model can continue like that, even if workers return to their offices part-time.
At the corner of Kent and Queen, meanwhile, a public servant made her way from her car to her office for the first time since 2020. She’d prefer to work from her home near Manotick than make the commute twice a day, but she’s not too upset. The drive wasn’t as bad as it was before the pandemic.
She has also heard grumblings that the return to downtown work is in large measure to revive the core, but hopes that’s not the case. “That shouldn’t be the reason we’re coming back. It should be about opportunities to connect with colleagues and collaborate, things you can’t quite do the same way on MS Teams.”
She’s a manager, she said, who’ll be meeting some of her staffers in person for the first time this week. “It’s a chance to connect with colleagues, so I don’t mind coming in a couple of times a week.”
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